The Government will issue a preliminary notification in a week to acquire land to extend the runway of the Mangalore Airport, according to Prabhulinga Kavalikatti, Assistant Commissioner, Mangalore Subdivision.
At the Karnataka Development Programme Review Committee meeting here on Monday, he said 156 acres of land would have to be acquired for extending the runway and 50 families would have to be rehabilitated.
Minister in-charge of Dakshina Kannada J. Krishna Palemar presided over the meeting.
According to the preliminary estimation, the Government needed Rs. 36 crore to acquire land. In addition, it needed Rs. 20 crore to rehabilitate the affected families. The State Government in the 2011-12 Budget reserved Rs. 15 crore for extending the runway, Mr. Kavalikatti said.
M.R. Vasudeva, Director, Mangalore Airport, stressed the need for arranging public transport to the airport from the city. He said the customer satisfaction index (CSI) of the airport now stood at 85 per cent as against the expected 95 per cent. A
n agency appointed by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) had referred to 17 external parameters for the airport not achieving the desired level of CSI. The main drawbacks were poor road connectivity and lack of public transport system to the airport.
N.S. Channappa Gowda, Deputy Commissioner, said the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) would operate an air-conditioned Volvo bus between the KSRTC Bus-stand at Bejai and the airport from July 15 on a trial basis.
Mr. Gowda, who is also Chairman of the Regional Transport Authority, did not make it clear on which route the bus would operate. When presspersons asked him about it later, he said the route would be decided shortly.
Nalin Kumar Kateel, MP, said that at a meeting convened by him some time ago, it was resolved to operate the bus between the Mangalore Central Railway Station and the airport via Lalbagh.
A KSRTC official pointed out that a notification issued by the district magistrate in 1994 came in the way of operating the bus via Lalbagh.
The notification banned operating buses for which new permits had been issued via Lalbagh.
To this, Mr. Gowda said that the bus could be operated via Kadri.
